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Questions about the Remington 742 woodsmaster

50K views 37 replies 16 participants last post by  muddly 
#1 ·
I purchased a Remington 742 Woodsmaster around 1992. I bought it used at a gun store and immediately went to a gun show the following weekend and bought the cheapest reload 30-06 ammo available. At the time, I thought ammo was ammo and cheaper was better. I took it out and fired it 2 or 3 times an ended up with a live round jammed in the chamber and I was not able to tell if the rifle was cocked or not! I called the gun store ASAP and they told me to leave the safety on, keep it pointed in a safe direction and BRING IT IN ASAP!. I did and when they clear it, they asked me "What the **** were you doing shooting cheap reloads out of a semi auto?!" I blushed, they took the gun and did a general check over and cleaning and sold me some quality ammo. I think I fired 40 rounds out of it the next time I went to the range and it maybe jammed once, which I thought was pretty good. I cleaned it and put it away for a while and then the Clinton anti gun era started and the ban on high capacity magazines. While everyone was panic buying AR-15's and AK-47s and ordering extra 30 round magazines, I got the bright idea that ordering several 10 round magazines for my Remington 742, would give me high capacity and high power and I wouldn't ever have to worry about the Clinton gun laws. The next time I went to the range, the range master saw all my loaded 10 round magazines and asked me if I was aware that was my rifle was designed for hunting and it was not a battle rifle. He went on to say if I emptied several rapid fire 8 or 10 round salvos through that gun, I would over heat the barrel, damage the rails and just plain wear it out all in one afternoon at the range. I certainly did not want that to happen so I fired about 20 rounds through my new magazines at a slow pace and do not recall any jams, then put the rifle away with a 10 round magazine stored in it. Now that I am older, I thought I might try my hand and hunting. I have always wanted to but never been with the right crowd to do so. Anyway, I dug out my old WoodsMaster but cannot for the life of me find my factory 4 round magazine and here in Florida hunting with a 10 magazine is very illegal, even if I only have 4 rounds loaded. Does anyone know where I can get a quality 4 round mag for this rifle? Is it interchangeable with any of the other Remington Auto loaders? Also, after doing a little reading on this gun I found out the range master was correct, this gun can be finicky and over use will wear this gun out. What is a quality ammo that will be the easiest on this gun? Is it better to use the lighter 150 bullets or 180 grain? At this point, I just want to take care of this old gun and use it for what it was originally designed for. If there is a type of ammo that puts less stress on it, I would like to use that. There is nothing in Florida that even the smallest 30-06 round could not bring down, so I am not worried about knock down power. All advice, comments and other stories about similar rifles are welcome....thanks
 
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#4 ·
The lighter the grain bullet, the less recoil you will be putting on the rifle and yourself. A Rem. model 760 magazine will work but it will not hold the bolt back after the last round is fired. The model 7400 and 7600 magazines will also work. The model 742 and 740 will both eventually have rail problems after they have been fired enough. That was just the way they were designed. Keeping a model 742 clean is the main thing to do. They tend to get rust in the chamber very easily.
 
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
The statement about damaging the rails is very true. I had a 742 carbine and loved it. Shot about 1 1/4" at 100. Then one of my friends who worked at Remington told me:

1. There are no more replacement receivers and spare parts are limited.

2. The rifle would sustain rail damage about 500 rounds which means when the bolt comes out of battery the locking lugs start beating on the rails. When the rails have had enough the bolt will rotate past the operational point and it stops.

3. A friend has had that happen and he got his going when I showed him what the problem was. He is a precision TIG welder and he built the rails up and got it going.

I have seen others for sale in flea markets with the rails beat up.

This is the reason for the 7400 and the internal design was changed.

Now the 760 did not suffer the same problem due to the manual openings. I have seen 760s with rifling shot away 2" in front of chamber.

the good news is the 10 round mags you bought will fit the 760.

It is not surprising the reloads did not fit as there are some dies that even though they say FL don't size enough to do the job. Unfortunately a lot of guys get into reloading and don't have a mentor to "show them the ropes" of reloading and what needs to be done to assure feed reliability. I guess that is the by product of living in a anti gun society now.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for all the info! I already ordered a a new 4 round magazine. (now of course my old one willl turn up) LOL. I appreciate the comment on lighter bullet less recoil. I have a box of Federal 150 grain soft points and that should be plenty for anything in Florida (assuming a rogue Grizzly does not wonder down from Canada or a cape buffalo does not swim across the ocean) LOL I plan to keep my rounds light and the rifle clean and hopefully she still has a few hunting trips left in her. Thanks again, I found this forum a few days ago and already enjoyed reading and commenting in the posts. I look forward to sharing ideas with everyone in the future
 
#7 ·
boat tail ammo

BTW I was watching youtube videos on how to care for a 742 and saw this one that says you "cannot fire boat tail ammo" through a Remington 742. The bullets are shaped similar to pointed soft points. Does anyone care to comment on this and why are why not BT ammo is not meant for this rifle?
 
#9 ·
jkale, if you can buy factory loaded 150 grn. boat tail ammo across the counter, it should fire in your rifle. Factory loaded ammo is loaded with bullet run out lengths to fit just about all factory made rifles chambered in that caliber. If it's hand reloads, who knows if it will fit any other given rifle except the person that loaded it for a specific rifle. My advice, don't use ballistic tip ammo on small deer. It will ruin a lot of good meat. Good luck with your rifle.
 
#10 ·
Hey I just went to the range and fired 10 rounds of Federal 150 gr ammo through it with one feed problem. A round fired and extracted properly but the next round did not feed and I heard a click as I squeezed the trigger. Other than that I cannot complain and than I was offered a box of 11.0 g/170 gr PPU Thunder 30-06 ammo that was made in Serbia. I was able to squeeze off 10 rounds beautifully with that, but my question is what is the 11.0g all about? Is this actually heavier or lighter then the 150 grain Federal? I already have a more conventional 4 round magazine on order and am sure this rifle will work out fine for what it was intended to be. In a hunting situation I can't think of too many times you would have to chance to fire more than 2 or 3 shots anyway. Oh well, time to finish cleaning this baby up..later
 
#11 ·
The 11 g ( grams ) equals 170 gr ( grains ), so yes it's 20 grains heavier than the Federal 150 grains you bought. Being foreign made is why that is like that, a lot of the foreign company's do that. You'll also see sometimes m/s ( meters per second ) instead of fps ( feet per second ) or joules instead of ft lbs ( foot pounds ). So the last round stayed in the magazine, is that what your saying or it chambered and was a misfire ? Just want to be sure ! If the magazine is old it could be that the spring under the follower is a bit weak and just couldn't push the last round up. The follower is what the rounds are sitting on top of in the magazine and there's a spring under it that pushes the rounds up, sometimes they just get weak and won't push the last round up. The new magazine will tell you if that is the problem or not, if the new magazine pushes all the rounds up then everything is fine. On the other hand if it does the same thing then the last round isn't being picked up for some reason. Your right, there won't many chances to shoot at a deer more than once whether they run after the first shot or just crumble after being hit with a 30-06 round. :D
 
#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
Remember just because you are shooting lighter bullets giving lighter recoil the speed of the action has not slowed down and the action is still operated in a violent series of movements in order to work. If you had access to a high speed camera and filmed the action port up close on firing you would be amazed what happens when the hammer hits and the round fires.


You fired ten rounds, was this from one of the 10 round mags you mentioned? Is there a name on your mag? Who made it?

When you are at range and by yourself with muzzle down range in a safe condition ease the bolt down a watch the bullet noses carefully and see where they contact and watch the movement as you gently ease the bolt down. Generally magazine designers like to have the meplat (bullet nose) arrive with the bullet center line just making it inside the chamber. This is to prevent a accidental discharge should a loaded round already being in the chamber. If the incoming meplat struck the primer of a previously chambered round you could get an open bolt ignition from the chambered round and that will ruin your entire day.

You could have a lube problem on the rifle or the mag. I have seen new mags that did not want to function until internally lubed and actuated a couple dozen times.

Place two rounds in mag and push them down and let the pressure off quickly a couple dozen times and see if they want to come to the top evenly. You can use the end of a old toothbrush to depress the rounds. If the back of the case wants to remain low and not come up and contact the lips all the way back it may be a spring energy problem or a spring design problem.


Depress mag and run your finger under the mag lips that hold the mag in place feeling for a burr or high spot. Look at your fired cases and see if there is a long deep scratch on the lower half of the fired cases. This is indicative of a burr on the underside of mag lips.

Semi autos are known for putting all kinds of dings, scratches etc on cases and case rims. For such I will defer new cases until I have fired them many rounds in my bolt guns and then maybe convert them for gas guns as they tend to eat brass.

The trick is to isolate the problem and there are a number of things that can cause the failure you have and a couple have been covered above.



You said you had several 10 round mags. Number your mags and load and fire two rounds from each mag when you go to the range. If you get malfunctions on only one mag it identifies that mag. If all mags do it you have a bad mag design, malfunctioning mag catch in rifle etc. Remember the name of the game is isolate and identify. This will become easier when you get more proficient with years of experience.


Conversely if the factory mag works fine and others don't well you figured out that. I can't recall ever seeing a bad Remington Mag in a 742/760.

Place mags in rifle that are empty and see if they lock in place or there is one that does not lock in like the others or that takes extra force to get it to lock. A mag only has to be lower just a little bit for the bolt not to pick up the next round.
Take a fairly large screwdriver and look on front of forearm, you will see a rather large screw. Remove the screw and slide the forearm forward and off. On bottom of barrel abut ten inches from the receiver you will see a tube that goes in a hole on a block as the bolt comes forward.

Put a few drops of Mobil 1 Synthetic Motor Oil on the tube and in the hole in the block and store it muzzle down a few days. Mobil 1 will soften up carbon which if built up can cause problems. When you are through shooting always leave Mobil 1 in the gas system.

Anywhere you see a shiny spot from parts movement put a couple drops along that shiney spot. Be sparing with application of lube. You don't necessarily need a rifling dripping oil here and there.

With the handguard off slowly cycle the bolt back and forth watch its movement. You will see springs on rods. Lube them as well. Also put a couple drops on the locking lugs and the rotating areas of the bolt. On the face of the hammer you will see rub wear, do a drop or two on that surface.

Most folks don't have eye droppers around these days so you can pour a bit in cap from bottle or another bottle and use a Q tip to apply the Mobil 1 to the wear areas.

Get a quart of Mobil 1 Synthetic Motor Oil (0W20, 0W30 or 5W20). You can also use it in cold weather. As well you can use it for cleaning your barrel. You can leave your barrel stored with a light coat of Mobil 1 as well. Before you go to range run a rod down the barrel and remove it, one pass will do it. Be very careful to not let the cleaning rod touch the inside of the barrel at the muzzle. Keep it centered with your fingers. I use one piece rods. The screw together steel rods issued with M1/M14 has ruined many a barrel and one wrong pass with a crooked steel rod will remove material from the crown and your accuracy just opened up and you won't even know you did it to yourself.

As I indicated above you don't have a long round life on this design so you don't want to be blasting mag fulls all day with it as the bolt will beat on the rails till failure. I look at 742s now as they have been around many years and I am seeing rails about to fail and have seen a couple that have already failed.

With the bolt to the rear look in ejection port about 1" from back of barrel and you may be able to see the beating on the rails or feel the deformations with your little finger.

You will probably be able to see cotton pulled off the applicator when rubbed down the rail top and bottom surfaces.

You can depress your mag follower and you will see vertical ribs on inside of mag. Rub a swab on the top of the ribs and the back of the mag on the inside. You just want to very lightly cover this surface, not soak it down. Kind of like licking an envelope, you don't do it with a mouth full of water.
 
#13 ·
Humphrey, thanks for the long reply. My 10 round Mags are Eagle. Right now I only have one, I packed the rest away with the factory mag years ago and have not been able to find them. They may turn up, but right now my interest with this rife is hunting and I cannot legally hunt with a 10 round magazine in my rifle. I ran your tests and the mag I have looks ok, maybe it was just a fluke that one round did not feed. I am excited about trying the 4 round mag when it arrives and if I can squeeze off 4 shots without and issue, this is the rifle I will take hog hunting. I do own an AK-47 with plenty of 30 round mags so if I feel the urge to cut loose with some rapid fire, that is what I will use. I have cleaned and lubed this rifle, but I will keep your instructions on how to use mobile 1. That is an interesting idea. I do not plan to over shoot this rifle, as have learned it just was not designed to be abused like an M1 Garand. I will probably just use the 4 round mag, if it functions properly from now on and hope I get some hunting years out of it...thanks again
 
#14 ·
This is just a thought, but since the gun apparently doesn't have a long life due to the rails wearing out have you thought about trading it in on a bolt action in 30-06 ? There's quite a few out there at the entry level price range that are very good rifles and very accurate to say the least. The Marlin X7, Weatherby Vandguard S2, T/C Venture, Ruger American, and the Savage Axis. These rifles are priced between $325-$350 to around $500 for the Weatherby, with a trade while the gun is still in fairly good shape you could get a pretty good deal I would think. Just an idea !
 
#15 ·
Don't know anything about the quality of Eagle mags. Have never owned one. The mag used by Remington is made by Checkmate Industries on Long Island. They are issued rem 7600s in the Police Patrol Rifles.

I agree with Fred, work up a trade on it for a good bolt gun and be shed of a certain death with the one you have. You could probably work a even trade right now.

You could probably trade even for a Rem 700, Win Mod 70, Ruger 77 or Savage. If you can I would get a varmint weight gun which will help with recoil good for longer ranges as well.
 
#16 ·
Yes I have thought about trading it, but for now I think it will take it on one of two hunting trips, firing it no more than necessary. I have spent enough time reading about this gun and learning how to properlty care for it, I have almost become a little attached to it :)
 
#17 ·
Well you could look at it this way. If the rails fail you can hang it over your fireplace and have a conversation piece. If you are broken into and/or it is stolen then if you have the serial number recorded the insurance company would possibly pay you for it. Make sure the cops put number on NCIC and it may remove some trash from the streets down the road.

Think of it as a "Bait Car" program haha.

Or if you hear of a gun buy back program the cops are running sell it to them but keep the mags. They will "re-destroy" it and pay you for doing it. I would rather insurance company pay me for it as it will be far more than cops will pay.

You will most likely have to remove the trigger group to get the bolt operating properly and it will cycle manually just but not when fired.

Just didn't want you to think I was all gloom and doom and bad news haha.
 
#18 ·
If after you fire a round, and the action dont close all the way and it goes click. The return sping under the forearm needs replaced. It isnt pulling the action completely shut. Keep the chamber clean, shiny, an dry when shooting, if they dont close all the way, return spring is junk, if an empty is caught by the bolt going forward, rails are getting bad. Was a good gun in its day. Dont miss the first shot an ya dont hafta worry about jammin....what the salesman told me in the late 60s
 
#19 ·
My first new rifle when I got out of the service was a Remington model 742~
I was sure proud of that little semi-auto carbine back then, until I went to the range with my brother in law, who had a model 70 Winchester 30/06.

To make a long story short, my rifle had a bad barrel on it and the wrong factory sights too.:( I found this out after the first weekend of deer season and missed (because it JAMMED!!!) a nice 8 pointer in the process.

I have seen rifles in this brand and model that shot like a dream! However, Remington did something at the factory and it screwed that rifle up something awful for those that purchased them down the road.

In my area, the gunstores will NOT take a model 742 in on a trade. Those that got a good shooter were lucky, as most had serious problems later on.:eek:
 
#23 ·
There are no replacement 'rails' for the Rem. model 742 & 740. The complete receiver has to be replaced or some gunsmithing with welding involved to the 'rails' has to be done to make the gun operational again after the 'rails' have gone south on one. Some peening to the 'rails' can be done to get it to working but that will only last for a short amount of time. The non-replaceable 'rails' is the reason Remington made the change to the model 7400. Non-replaceable 'rails' was the design flaw with the Rem. model 742 & 740.
 
#22 ·
The fact that the most popular spare parts were gone in 1987 told me to dump my 06 Carbine and I did quick. It only had about 120 rounds on it and it shot well and I won't have a rifle (for long) I know will go down.

I know of two designs that can be rebuilt continiously. A Mod 70 pre 64/pre war and a 1903/A3 Springfield. You can just keep on replacing barrel after barrel on them. I have a friend who put 12 barrels on a pre 64 70 and still going fine. Another has run five barrels on his. The most on any of my 70s is three barrels so far.

The Springfield actions were ammo acceptance at Frankford, LC etc and they ran them about 15,000 to 17,000 rounds and just changed barrels and they went back to work. A good friend was one of the guys at FA who changed out the barrels time after time.

The 700 should be added to this list as the Marines continually rework their M40s with multiple barrel replacements. As well the 5.56 test actions for ammo at LC are built on 700s
 
#24 ·
I too have one of those 03/A3s with a new barrel.

The old one probably wasnt that bad but I decided, like lots of others to rebarrel a gun. A friend was enrolled at a local Comm college night gunsmithing course. It just happened he needed a project gun. He took my 03.

I asked for a Shilen or some high priced, good reputation barrel. I knew it was going to be a few 100$$ (12 yrs ago). He got back w/ me and said the instructor, a good , reputable smith, had some new, 03 issue barrels for $75, installed. We put it on. Hed also guaranteed it to be a
'one holer', one hole every time I shot it. It is a good shooter and I have at MOST 200 rounds thru it, but probably closer to 150. It will outlive me by many shots.

On one occasion I was shooting and then I used a black dot an a sheet of printer paper, or smaller. Was shooting at 100 yds. I shot 5, and had 4 in one big hole w/ the 5th about 3/4" to the right. I posted another target and id it again.

Four in one big hole and the 5th about 3/4" to the left. So I had 8/10 in one hole(smaller than a quarter) and one I pulled each way about 3/4". Money well spent. No reason to believe the two wouldnt have went in the same hole if Id put em there.

I need to get back to shooting that gun some. It has one moose and 2 deer notched in the stock.
 
#27 ·
I got a new Remington mag for my 742 and took it to the range. It seemed to work ok with one issue, if I load all 4 rounds and snap it in, the first 3 fire beautifully but round 4 does not feed. It just not appear to jam either, I think it just stays in the mag because my rifle dry fires. When I eject the shell, it does not have a primer mark and when reloaded it fires fine. That happened with 150 and 170 gr ammo. When I only load 3 rounds in the mag, everything functions perfectly and honestly this is enough for me and this rifle. I only plan to take it on a few hog hunts and if I can count on 3 reliable shots I should be fine. I took my rifle to a gun smith and asked for a complete break down, check over and cleaning. He did so and told me the gas system was dirty and he could tell the chamber had not been cleaned properly, which is common for this model of gun since it is not possible to clean from the breach end. He took the barrel off and told me everything really looked in good shape though and cleaned it like it had never been cleaned before. As long as I know it is a safe gun and it will probably fire 3 rounds without an issue I am happy. I am looking forward to trying it out again after all the cleaning though, maybe that will make a difference

BTW my bad on the bullet labeling in an earlier post..it is 11.0 g not gr
 
#28 · (Edited)
If you load your 742 by inserting a 3 round magazine and then pull back the bolt, release it and allow the bolt to strip off the top round (the way most are loaded) then all you'll need to do is pop the magazine, add a round and now you have a 4 round rifle (previous should be performed, of course, with rifle on safe). The "proper" way to load the M 750 is very odd and I'd figure most do not do it the way Remington recommends. You might want to try the method, however.

Remington's recommended procedure is such: Install an empty magazine in the mag well, pull back the bolt and allow it to lock open, hand feed a round directly into the chamber and then hit the bolt release allowing it to slam forward, chambering the round (do all this while pointing the rifle in a safe direction, of course!) After the chamber is loaded in this manner, remove the magazine and add 4 rounds (3 in your case!) and then re-insert the magazine into the mag well. This is the way Remington recommends you load the M750. ****NOTE: this is also the proper method for loading the M7400 as well.
 
#29 ·
Remington's first auto-loader for the 30-06 was the model 740. It had many problems but the engineers figured it out. The result became the model 742. This rifle was produced for many years. Remington upgraded a few action parts about 30 years ago and resulted in the model 7400. This rifle is still produced.

TR
 
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